Pressure Builds to Tear Down Abandoned Historic Hotels

Harden Hall, above, in Sebring is slowly deteriorating on the instide after nearly 30 years of disuse, officials agreed it would probably take $10 million to $15 million to complete an unfinished restoration of the hotel.
KATARA SIMMONS | HALIFAX MEDIA SERVICES

Published: Saturday, December 28, 2013 at 11:23 p.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, December 28, 2013 at 11:23 p.m.

SEBRING | In its heyday, Harder Hall hotel in Sebring was known by the matriarchal nickname "the pink lady."

The 86-year-old Highlands County landmark still appears matriarchal from the outside, but it is slowly deteriorating on the inside from nearly three decades of disuse. A more common nickname today is "pink elephant," a play on ''white elephant,'' a possession difficult to dispose.

Whatever the color, many communities across Florida have faced the same issue of preserving historic downtown hotels or tearing them down. In Polk County, that includes Lakeland's Terrace Hotel and the former Regency Hotel, now Lake Mirror Tower; Grand Hotel in Lake Wales; and Polk Hotel in Haines City.

The Lakeland and Haines City hotels got new life after many calls for their demolition. The Sebring and Lake Wales hotels have avoided the wrecking ball so far, but their futures remain murky as each requires millions of dollars in renovations that won't happen until the buildings find a new purpose compatible with their current local economies.

"There's a growing market in Lakeland, and that's what made it happen," said Jim Studiale, the city's director of community development, referring to the successful restoration of The Terrace as a hotel and the transformation of the Regency to upscale apartments. "Sebring and Lake Wales don't have that advantage."

The Polk and Highlands hotels share a common history with many other Florida hotels, such as the Don CeSar, another pink palace in St. Petersburg Beach, said Terry Hunter, 67, a partner in Pickett Hunter Associates Architecture of Lakeland and a student of the state's architecture history.

All were built during the Florida real estate boom in the 1920s, Hunter said.

"Every community wanted to have one or more of these hotels. Everybody was thinking that there would be all these people (tourists) coming," he said. "They tended to be not just a point of community pride but a community center because they had restaurants, large meeting rooms and other facilities."

Most survived and even flourished after the 1927 Florida real estate bust and the subsequent Great Depression because tourism in those decades largely meant train travel, which deposited tourists in city centers, Hunter said. Those winter tourists came for golf and other recreational activities that even smaller communities could provide.

That changed in the 1950s when the automobile became the primary vehicle bringing tourists to Florida, he said.

"When the car took over after World War II, the car-based tourists weren't looking for these downtown hotels," Hunter said.

Instead they favored beach hotels and later theme parks and resorts designed as "destination attractions," a single location offering a variety of amusements and recreation, he said.

Beginning in the 1960s, many of the 1920s hotels closed or scraped by serving other clientele, Hunter said.

The Terrace became a "bum hotel," Studiale said, while the Regency became affordable housing for retirees. Harder Hall remained a resort hotel until it closed in 1986 when the owners declared bankruptcy.

The Harder Hall story typifies the travails of those classic hotels still struggling to survive.

When Vince Hall and Lewis Harder opened their eponymous 138-room resort hotel in 1927, it immediately became a community gem, reputedly the first $1 million building in the county, according to archives at Sebring Historical Society. Construction costs at the time were put at $1.5 million, or more than $20 million in 2013 dollars.

In addition to rooms and an upscale restaurant with banquet hall, it offered swimming, boating and sunbathing on Little Lake Jackson, on whose shore it rests, along with its own golf course and tennis courts.

After the bankruptcy, Harder Hall fell into the hands of Resolution Trust Corp., the federal agency created in the late 1980s to sell off the assets from failed savings and loan companies.

The agency made one move that diminished the hotel's chances for revival as a resort business: selling off the golf course and some adjoining land. That reduced Harder Hall's footprint from about 300 acres to its current 13 acres, said Bob Hoffman, assistant administrator for the city of Sebring, which owns the property.

Since its closing, Harder Hall saw two aborted attempts at restoration.

Miami developer Avi Limor purchased the property from Resolution Trust in June 1994 for $517,300, most of which went into an escrow account to remove environmentally hazardous asbestos and lead fixtures. Limor spent $1.5 million on renovations before perishing in a private plane crash in November 1995.

Marc Shenker, another Miami developer, purchased Harder Hall in December 2003, and worked with the city to obtain $5.2 million in a loan and grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for restoration. The work ended in 2006, when Shenker went bankrupt and left scores of local contractors unpaid to the tune of more than $350,000, according to Historical Society archives.

The city foreclosed on the property and took responsibility for paying off almost the entire HUD loan.

Shenker's exit created one more obstacle to future restoration, Hoffman said.

"We have very few building plans, called 'as-builts,' showing what restoration was completed," he said.

The as-builts would be important for any future buyer to calculate the cost of completing the restoration, Hoffman said. He estimated Harder Hall's three-story north wing about 70 percent complete, the central six-story tower about 60 percent restored but the south wing only about 10 percent renovated.

Hoffman fields dozens of calls each month inquiring about selling Harder Hall and has given prospective buyers many tours of the resort's interior, he said.

Most were just "kicking the tires," Hoffman said.

The only serious offer came from a St. Petersburg investment firm that proposed to turn Harder Hall into independent and assisted living facilities for seniors, he said, but the company could not arrange another HUD loan.

Hunter, Studiale and city officials agreed it would probably take $10 million to $15 million to complete the restoration.

Like the Terrace and Regency hotels, Harder Hall's future rests on finding an economically viable future for the property, Hoffman said.

"The key is finding some kind of use that allows you to generate a revenue flow you can make use of as an ongoing business," Hunter agreed.

That's the same issue facing Ray Brown of Walesbilt Hotel Restoration, the owner of Grand Hotel in Lake Wales, originally called the Dixie Walesbilt Hotel when it opened Jan. 14, 1927.

The Grand's history mirrors that of the other landmark hotels — built during the 1920s boom, successful for the first few decades, then going into gradual decline under a series of landlords who couldn't generate the money to maintain the building — said Brown, also a student of architectural history who has studied the hotel's history.

The Grand closed in the late 1980s, at which time it was already in considerable disrepair, he said. A manager had stripped the hotel of copper pipes and wiring and other fixtures that he sold for cash.

The city obtained ownership through a lien foreclosure in October 2007. It made a deal with Brown in February 2010 to turn over ownership after his company had completed $1.5 million in renovation work within 16 months.

That happened in June 2011, when Brown became the owner. The 11-story hotel has 100 guest rooms and retail space on the ground floor, he said.

He and two employees are continuing to restore the Grand, but he acknowledged the work will proceed slowly until he lines up other investors for the property. He estimated the cost of completing the work would range from $6 million to $12 million, depending upon future use of the building.

"I've stayed committed to it," Brown said. "We used to have a lot more love in our hearts for these old buildings. It's not that we can't restore them; we don't even try."

The pull between the community's love for its historic buildings and brutal economic reality has so far kept the wrecking ball away from Harder Hall and Grand Hotel.

Hoffman noted the city agreed to back the HUD loan after people packed the city commission chambers to overflowing in December 2004. Many pleaded with commissioners to back Harder Hall's restoration and nobody spoke against it.

Sebring Commissioner John Griffin said he believes the community support is still there.

"People still have memories of their weddings and other significant events in their lives that happened at Harder Hall. They wouldn't want to tear it down," Griffin said.

But some in the community who see futility in continuing the search for a savior with deep enough pockets are becoming more vocal about tearing down Harder Hall.

The same cries were heard in Lakeland before the city sealed the deals for the Regency and Terrace restorations, Studiale said. In fact, the Lakeland City Commission had voted unanimously to tear the Regency down before Studiale bought time to find a buyer.

Sebring Commissioner Bud Whitlock voted nine years ago to back the HUD loan, but he now agrees the building should be torn down so the city can sell the 13-acre property. The land alone, less than a block off U.S. 27, probably has more value without the building, he said.

"There was a lot of sentimental value from some long-time residents who had their proms there," Whitlock said. "It's too far gone now to save. "Even now it (demolition) would be controversial, but the longer Harder Hall sits there, the less support restoration gets."

[ Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-401-6980. ]

<p>SEBRING | In its heyday, Harder Hall hotel in Sebring was known by the matriarchal nickname "the pink lady."</p><p>The 86-year-old Highlands County landmark still appears matriarchal from the outside, but it is slowly deteriorating on the inside from nearly three decades of disuse. A more common nickname today is "pink elephant," a play on ''white elephant,'' a possession difficult to dispose.</p><p>Whatever the color, many communities across Florida have faced the same issue of preserving historic downtown hotels or tearing them down. In Polk County, that includes Lakeland's Terrace Hotel and the former Regency Hotel, now Lake Mirror Tower; Grand Hotel in Lake Wales; and Polk Hotel in Haines City.</p><p>The Lakeland and Haines City hotels got new life after many calls for their demolition. The Sebring and Lake Wales hotels have avoided the wrecking ball so far, but their futures remain murky as each requires millions of dollars in renovations that won't happen until the buildings find a new purpose compatible with their current local economies.</p><p>"There's a growing market in Lakeland, and that's what made it happen," said Jim Studiale, the city's director of community development, referring to the successful restoration of The Terrace as a hotel and the transformation of the Regency to upscale apartments. "Sebring and Lake Wales don't have that advantage."</p><p>The Polk and Highlands hotels share a common history with many other Florida hotels, such as the Don CeSar, another pink palace in St. Petersburg Beach, said Terry Hunter, 67, a partner in Pickett Hunter Associates Architecture of Lakeland and a student of the state's architecture history.</p><p>All were built during the Florida real estate boom in the 1920s, Hunter said.</p><p>"Every community wanted to have one or more of these hotels. Everybody was thinking that there would be all these people (tourists) coming," he said. "They tended to be not just a point of community pride but a community center because they had restaurants, large meeting rooms and other facilities."</p><p>Most survived and even flourished after the 1927 Florida real estate bust and the subsequent Great Depression because tourism in those decades largely meant train travel, which deposited tourists in city centers, Hunter said. Those winter tourists came for golf and other recreational activities that even smaller communities could provide.</p><p>That changed in the 1950s when the automobile became the primary vehicle bringing tourists to Florida, he said.</p><p>"When the car took over after World War II, the car-based tourists weren't looking for these downtown hotels," Hunter said.</p><p>Instead they favored beach hotels and later theme parks and resorts designed as "destination attractions," a single location offering a variety of amusements and recreation, he said.</p><p>Beginning in the 1960s, many of the 1920s hotels closed or scraped by serving other clientele, Hunter said.</p><p>The Terrace became a "bum hotel," Studiale said, while the Regency became affordable housing for retirees. Harder Hall remained a resort hotel until it closed in 1986 when the owners declared bankruptcy.</p><p>The Harder Hall story typifies the travails of those classic hotels still struggling to survive.</p><p>When Vince Hall and Lewis Harder opened their eponymous 138-room resort hotel in 1927, it immediately became a community gem, reputedly the first $1 million building in the county, according to archives at Sebring Historical Society. Construction costs at the time were put at $1.5 million, or more than $20 million in 2013 dollars.</p><p>In addition to rooms and an upscale restaurant with banquet hall, it offered swimming, boating and sunbathing on Little Lake Jackson, on whose shore it rests, along with its own golf course and tennis courts.</p><p>After the bankruptcy, Harder Hall fell into the hands of Resolution Trust Corp., the federal agency created in the late 1980s to sell off the assets from failed savings and loan companies.</p><p>The agency made one move that diminished the hotel's chances for revival as a resort business: selling off the golf course and some adjoining land. That reduced Harder Hall's footprint from about 300 acres to its current 13 acres, said Bob Hoffman, assistant administrator for the city of Sebring, which owns the property.</p><p>Since its closing, Harder Hall saw two aborted attempts at restoration.</p><p>Miami developer Avi Limor purchased the property from Resolution Trust in June 1994 for $517,300, most of which went into an escrow account to remove environmentally hazardous asbestos and lead fixtures. Limor spent $1.5 million on renovations before perishing in a private plane crash in November 1995.</p><p>Marc Shenker, another Miami developer, purchased Harder Hall in December 2003, and worked with the city to obtain $5.2 million in a loan and grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for restoration. The work ended in 2006, when Shenker went bankrupt and left scores of local contractors unpaid to the tune of more than $350,000, according to Historical Society archives.</p><p>The city foreclosed on the property and took responsibility for paying off almost the entire HUD loan.</p><p>Shenker's exit created one more obstacle to future restoration, Hoffman said.</p><p>"We have very few building plans, called 'as-builts,' showing what restoration was completed," he said.</p><p>The as-builts would be important for any future buyer to calculate the cost of completing the restoration, Hoffman said. He estimated Harder Hall's three-story north wing about 70 percent complete, the central six-story tower about 60 percent restored but the south wing only about 10 percent renovated.</p><p>Hoffman fields dozens of calls each month inquiring about selling Harder Hall and has given prospective buyers many tours of the resort's interior, he said.</p><p>Most were just "kicking the tires," Hoffman said.</p><p>The only serious offer came from a St. Petersburg investment firm that proposed to turn Harder Hall into independent and assisted living facilities for seniors, he said, but the company could not arrange another HUD loan.</p><p>Hunter, Studiale and city officials agreed it would probably take $10 million to $15 million to complete the restoration.</p><p>Like the Terrace and Regency hotels, Harder Hall's future rests on finding an economically viable future for the property, Hoffman said.</p><p>"The key is finding some kind of use that allows you to generate a revenue flow you can make use of as an ongoing business," Hunter agreed.</p><p>That's the same issue facing Ray Brown of Walesbilt Hotel Restoration, the owner of Grand Hotel in Lake Wales, originally called the Dixie Walesbilt Hotel when it opened Jan. 14, 1927.</p><p>The Grand's history mirrors that of the other landmark hotels — built during the 1920s boom, successful for the first few decades, then going into gradual decline under a series of landlords who couldn't generate the money to maintain the building — said Brown, also a student of architectural history who has studied the hotel's history.</p><p>The Grand closed in the late 1980s, at which time it was already in considerable disrepair, he said. A manager had stripped the hotel of copper pipes and wiring and other fixtures that he sold for cash.</p><p>The city obtained ownership through a lien foreclosure in October 2007. It made a deal with Brown in February 2010 to turn over ownership after his company had completed $1.5 million in renovation work within 16 months.</p><p>That happened in June 2011, when Brown became the owner. The 11-story hotel has 100 guest rooms and retail space on the ground floor, he said.</p><p>He and two employees are continuing to restore the Grand, but he acknowledged the work will proceed slowly until he lines up other investors for the property. He estimated the cost of completing the work would range from $6 million to $12 million, depending upon future use of the building.</p><p>"I've stayed committed to it," Brown said. "We used to have a lot more love in our hearts for these old buildings. It's not that we can't restore them; we don't even try."</p><p>The pull between the community's love for its historic buildings and brutal economic reality has so far kept the wrecking ball away from Harder Hall and Grand Hotel.</p><p>Hoffman noted the city agreed to back the HUD loan after people packed the city commission chambers to overflowing in December 2004. Many pleaded with commissioners to back Harder Hall's restoration and nobody spoke against it.</p><p>Sebring Commissioner John Griffin said he believes the community support is still there.</p><p>"People still have memories of their weddings and other significant events in their lives that happened at Harder Hall. They wouldn't want to tear it down," Griffin said.</p><p>But some in the community who see futility in continuing the search for a savior with deep enough pockets are becoming more vocal about tearing down Harder Hall.</p><p>The same cries were heard in Lakeland before the city sealed the deals for the Regency and Terrace restorations, Studiale said. In fact, the Lakeland City Commission had voted unanimously to tear the Regency down before Studiale bought time to find a buyer.</p><p>Sebring Commissioner Bud Whitlock voted nine years ago to back the HUD loan, but he now agrees the building should be torn down so the city can sell the 13-acre property. The land alone, less than a block off U.S. 27, probably has more value without the building, he said.</p><p>"There was a lot of sentimental value from some long-time residents who had their proms there," Whitlock said. "It's too far gone now to save. "Even now it (demolition) would be controversial, but the longer Harder Hall sits there, the less support restoration gets."</p><p>[ Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-401-6980. ]</p>